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Re: Ravens to partner with State of MD to promote "Obamacare"

The ACA is the law of the land and isn't going anywhere anytime soon. As far as I'm concerned it's no longer a political issue--it's now simply a government program that should be implemented and administered as efficiently and effectively as possible.

We can debate what specifically that's going to look like, but would anybody be complaining if local civic organizations were helping seniors sign up for Social Security or Medicare, or attend government-sponsored financial planning classes, or something of the sort? That is what the Ravens are doing and they ought to be commended for their community outreach.

Of course, the harsh reality is that there are powerful interest groups out there who want and need this program to fail in order to validate their politics, and let the people be damned if they suffer for it. They will stop at nothing to mislead the public, sabotage the program, and then declare victory at the slightest hiccup of their own creation!

This is straight out of the Medicare playbook. In the 60's Reagan, Bush Sr., and many others vehemently opposed Medicare and said it would destroy the country. Flash forward 40 years and Medicare is enormously popular and provides the best results of any health care program in the country.

Re: Ravens to Promote Obamacare in MD

Maryland is a VERY blue state and overwhelmingly supports this mess of a law. Catering to your customers is good business.

Actually many if not most of us aren't in MD anymore and at least in my case it's largely due to MD's political policies. So, if the Ravens choose to ignore many of their fans for this train wreck of a law, it's logical they will also lose fans. It's unfortunate but they have made their deal with the devil. a-holes

Re: Ravens to Promote Obamacare in MD

I am firmly in the "minority" that support the ACA (aka "Obamacare") and also in the sizeable majority that would support it if they understood what it does & does not do & how it can benefit them.

What exactly are the Ravens proposing to do?

“The partnership will provide Maryland Health Connection with the opportunity to reach and engage fans while making them aware of the new opportunity they have for health coverage beginning this fall through the health insurance marketplace.”

A Ravens spokesman said the team would reveal more details on Wednesday, after a conference call to discuss its role. According to the Maryland Health Connection, the team is expected to assist during a six-month enrollment period that begins on Oct. 1, a few weeks into the start of the NFL season. The partnership is intended “to connect with Maryland residents about the importance of developing a health coverage game plan.”

In Maryland, the partnership with the Ravens is one facet of a broader enrollment effort, which also includes a social media campaign and partnerships with CVS and Giant Food. The stores will provide shoppers with information about coverage.

But...but why should a private business like the Ravens be asked to do this? Shouldn't it be the government's job to inform the people about the effects of its laws?

In a sane world, it should be. In a world, that is, where the party in control of the House of Representatives hasn't gone out of its way to ensure that there is no funding for that activity.

The NFL was among the sports leagues that Republican lawmakers warned against participating in Obamacare outreach efforts, and the league responded by insisting it had no plans to do so.

IOW, not only is the government prevented from publicizing the law of the land, they apparently need to make sure no one else does either.

Why? Because right now, most of what folks think they know about the ACA comes from Far-Wrong opponents of the law lying their asses off at the top of their lungs, hoping that if people don't know how to make use of the law they will continue to suffer & then blame Obama & the Democrats for the failure & the GOP will thereby profit at the polls.

There's a whole lot of words for that sort of nasty-minded, misanthropic sabotage. My favorite among the cleaner ones is despicable.

I don't think Steve Bisciotti is an especial fan of Barack Obama or the Democratic Party. Major props all the more to him & the Ravens for doing what they can to get the facts out through the cacophony of self-serving lies.

Re: Ravens to Promote Obamacare in MD

Loba ---

I think the issue is there involved in the first place. Go read the Ravens Facebook page or twitter feed. Plenty of people are supporters of Obamacare but pissed that their sports team is getting into politics at all.

I;d be just as upset if the Ravens came out and supported the NRA and one could argue with the same reasoning's in your post -- if you took the time to really read what the NRA says, get through the cacophay of lies, etc -- but that still doesn't make it right, smart or prudent.

People use sports to get away from politics, left or right.

WARNING: This post may contain material offensive to those who lack wit, humor, common sense and/or supporting factual or anecdotal evidence. All statements and assertions contained herein may be subject to literary devices not limited to: irony, metaphor, allusion and dripping sarcasm.

Re: Ravens to partner with State of MD to promote "Obamacare"

Originally Posted by bmorecareful

The ACA is the law of the land and isn't going anywhere anytime soon. As far as I'm concerned it's no longer a political issue--it's now simply a government program that should be implemented and administered as efficiently and effectively as possible.

We can debate what specifically that's going to look like, but would anybody be complaining if local civic organizations were helping seniors sign up for Social Security or Medicare, or attend government-sponsored financial planning classes, or something of the sort? That is what the Ravens are doing and they ought to be commended for their community outreach.

Of course, the harsh reality is that there are powerful interest groups out there who want and need this program to fail in order to validate their politics, and let the people be damned if they suffer for it. They will stop at nothing to mislead the public, sabotage the program, and then declare victory at the slightest hiccup of their own creation!

This is straight out of the Medicare playbook. In the 60's Reagan, Bush Sr., and many others vehemently opposed Medicare and said it would destroy the country. Flash forward 40 years and Medicare is enormously popular and provides the best results of any health care program in the country.

Of course Obamacare is still a political issue though it is understandable why supporters wish it were not, the law has been a disaster. A predictable disaster, but a disaster nonetheless.

Unlike Medicare and Social Security, Obamacare is a partisan monstrosity that was passed by hook, crook, bribes and a pack of lies without any debate or compromise. All of the criticisms at the time it was being rammed through Congress in an unprecedented fashion are being shown to be true. All the pie-in-the-sky promises shown to be lies.

It is such poorly designed legislation that the Executive branch has had to trample the Constitution in order to delay and attempt to repair, by fiat, some of the more egregious problems. Interest groups that naively supported the law are now balking at the effects and want exemptions.

Of course the harsh reality is that there are powerful interest groups out there who want and need this program to succeed in order to validate their politics, and let the people be damned when they suffer for it. They will stop at nothing to mislead the public, push forward an unpopular program, and then declare that single-payer health care is the only "solution" to the problems of their own creation!

Medicare is completely unsustainable in its past and current form. That is an undeniable fact. It also is an inefficient and fraud-ridden program. It is however fairly popular, as are most things with hidden costs and visible rewards. I also have no idea what you mean by "health care program" in terms of results.

Obamacare has nothing to do with Medicare, except that the former robs hundreds of billions from the latter, but it will however massively expand Medicaid. And Medicaid provides by far the worse results of any health care program in the country, to the point where studies have shown that its results are no better than the results of being uninsured.

Re: Ravens to partner with State of MD to promote "Obamacare"

Originally Posted by Haloti92

Obamacare has nothing to do with Medicare, except that the former robs hundreds of billions from the latter, but it will however massively expand Medicaid. And Medicaid provides by far the worse results of any health care program in the country, to the point where studies have shown that its results are no better than the results of being uninsured.

As someone who has what is considered to be one of the better employer supplied/co-payed for Health plans, I WISH I got half as good of care as my mother does on Medicaid. She gets quality care, including treatment that helped her survive breast cancer. She also got treated for long term effects that cropped up from a gall-bladder removal 35 years ago. All this without being sent into the years of debt I'm dealing with for a simple Colonoscopy. I'm not the biggest fan of Obamacare, mainly because I think it relies on insurance companies that dream up new ways of fucking us over each year, like taking the X-ray machine in the Orthopedic office, slapping a sticker for a different company on the doorway and saying you have to make a second co-pay to get an x-ray. Medicaid however has saved lives and, if there's fraud, I'm guessing it's on the part of Medical institutions that try getting away with the same things they get away with when working with the insurance companies they're constantly trying to fuck over as badly as they're getting fucked over in return.

Re: Ravens to partner with State of MD to promote "Obamacare"

Originally Posted by saintmatthew

As someone who has what is considered to be one of the better employer supplied/co-payed for Health plans, I WISH I got half as good of care as my mother does on Medicaid. She gets quality care, including treatment that helped her survive breast cancer. She also got treated for long term effects that cropped up from a gall-bladder removal 35 years ago. All this without being sent into the years of debt I'm dealing with for a simple Colonoscopy. I'm not the biggest fan of Obamacare, mainly because I think it relies on insurance companies that dream up new ways of fucking us over each year, like taking the X-ray machine in the Orthopedic office, slapping a sticker for a different company on the doorway and saying you have to make a second co-pay to get an x-ray. Medicaid however has saved lives and, if there's fraud, I'm guessing it's on the part of Medical institutions that try getting away with the same things they get away with when working with the insurance companies they're constantly trying to fuck over as badly as they're getting fucked over in return.

Not sure if you mean Medicare instead of Medicaid, but if not, then I would simply say to do some research on the results of the program. No one is arguing that there exist no such person who has had good results from Medicaid.

The problem is that the program reimburses so little that only the least-in-demand (read: worst) doctors see substantial numbers of Medicaid patients. The lack of supply of doctors and providers who accept Medicaid leads to a lack of access to care that adversely affects results and leads to a massive number of Medicaid patients simply going to the ER for all their health care needs and getting shuffled through with the minimum treatment possible (like uninsured patients often do). It also leads to insane results like children dying of dental cavity infections because their mother could not find/schedule an appointment with a Medicaid-accepting dentist for months.

It is hard to imagine a health care program that could be set up as poorly as Medicaid, frankly. Obviously some states are better than others, but overall the joint state-federal program is poor (compared to alternatives).

Re: Ravens to Promote Obamacare in MD

Originally Posted by houstonraven

loba ---

i think the issue is there involved in the first place. Go read the ravens facebook page or twitter feed. Plenty of people are supporters of obamacare but pissed that their sports team is getting into politics at all.

I;d be just as upset if the ravens came out and supported the nra and one could argue with the same reasoning's in your post -- if you took the time to really read what the nra says, get through the cacophay of lies, etc -- but that still doesn't make it right, smart or prudent.

Re: Ravens to partner with State of MD to promote "Obamacare"

Originally Posted by bmorecareful

The ACA is the law of the land and isn't going anywhere anytime soon. As far as I'm concerned it's no longer a political issue--it's now simply a government program that should be implemented and administered as efficiently and effectively as possible.

We can debate what specifically that's going to look like, but would anybody be complaining if local civic organizations were helping seniors sign up for Social Security or Medicare, or attend government-sponsored financial planning classes, or something of the sort? That is what the Ravens are doing and they ought to be commended for their community outreach.

Of course, the harsh reality is that there are powerful interest groups out there who want and need this program to fail in order to validate their politics, and let the people be damned if they suffer for it. They will stop at nothing to mislead the public, sabotage the program, and then declare victory at the slightest hiccup of their own creation!

This is straight out of the Medicare playbook. In the 60's Reagan, Bush Sr., and many others vehemently opposed Medicare and said it would destroy the country. Flash forward 40 years and Medicare is enormously popular and provides the best results of any health care program in the country.

They were right. It has destroyed the country. Medicare and Soc Sec contribute about
50% of our national debt which is why the Ryan Plan wanted to streamline it and he
was crucified but it destroyed the country as O BUMMER CARE will add trillions
more.

Nobody cares about the debt especially the white females and spanish that voted
for O BUMMER CARE. When asked at a DEM bash after the election, all the white females
said they voted for OBY because of O BUMMER CARE. They like me paying $10 pr mo
for their condoms. Then they were asked about the debt and they said what debt. Not
one female knew about the debt or cared. Even my nephew who is a recent college
grad laughed at me when I talked about the debt. I said don't ask me for more money
like you did when you were stuck in Australia and couldn't get home when you're
poor paying the taxes on O BUMMER CARE.

I'm paying about $100 pr mo for my plan which is great and pays for everything but
a modest deductable. At 65 I have to go on Medicare by law and pay $111 pr mo
for it and $100 pr mo for Aetna as a backup. My costs double.

That said, if I can't afford Medicare there's an agency in town that will pay it for
me and thus the debt. I know retirees that pay the medicare but can't afford the
supplement like Aetna.